{"id":148,"date":"2014-01-07T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2014\/01\/07\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-6\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:16","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nLately,
\nwhen reading, italicized internal monologue jumps right out at me. Literally. The
\nwords jar me, and I\u2019m sure they jar the majority of readers. Why? How can I put this?<\/i><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
    \n
  • Internal
    \nmonologue is shown via italicization. The reader is going along in the normal
    \nfont, and then it slants. Then it returns to normal. Then it slants again.<\/li>\n
  • When used in
    \nthird-person viewpoint the italics are joined by a sudden switch to
    \nfirst-person viewpoint.<\/li>\n
  • When used in a
    \nfirst-person viewpoint, the italics have no reason for being there. Italics
    \nannounce to the reader that the point of view wasn\u2019t deep enough in the first
    \nplace.<\/li>\n
  • Internal thought
    \nis used as a shortcut in fiction, and as such, it becomes a tool for telling
    \nrather than showing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \n<\/div>\n
    \n<\/div>\n
    \n<\/div>\n
    \nAs with all style
    \nissues in fiction, overuse of italics is tiresome and ineffective and should be
    \nused sparingly. I believe that internal thought has two functions: 1) to
    \nplace emphasis on an important thought; or 2) for relevant silent
    \nprayer.<\/div>\n
    \n<\/div>\n
    \nWhen self-editing
    \nfor areas where telling versus showing are the focus, italicized
    \ninternal monologue is a great place for an author to search.<\/div>\n
    \n<\/div>\n
    \nIn the evaluation
    \nof these areas, here are some questions that should be asked:<\/div>\n
    \n<\/div>\n
      \n
    • Is the internal
      \nmonologue important enough that it needs special emphasis (and if that is true
      \nmore than twice in a manuscript, the author may want to determine another way
      \nto get this emphasis across)?<\/li>\n
    • If internal
      \nmonologue is included in a scene, can the first paragraph be set stronger to
      \nclearly define the point-of-view character and to allow his or her thoughts to
      \nflow in the narrative, drawing the reader closer to that character?<\/li>\n
    • If the story is
      \nbeing told in first-person point of view and internal monologue is being used
      \ndoes that mean that the first person, point-of-view character\u2019s voice is not
      \nstrong enough for the reader to realize that the thoughts are flowing from that
      \ncharacter into the narrative?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \n<\/div>\n
      \n<\/div>\n
      \n<\/div>\n
      \nInternal monologue
      \nhas a place in fiction. It can be used to great effect, but only if it used minimally and for the greatest impact.<\/div>\n
      \n<\/div>\n
      \nHappy editing.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Lately, when reading, italicized internal monologue jumps right out at me. Literally. The words jar me, and I\u2019m sure they jar the majority of readers. Why? How can I put this? Internal monologue is shown via italicization. The reader is going along in the normal font, and then it slants. Then it returns to normal. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[67,92,122,123,70,124],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing","tag-editing-helps","tag-internal-monologue","tag-italicization","tag-self-editing","tag-showing-versus-telling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}